The first tunnel diode was invented by the instant inventor over twenty years ago. Much study and work has gone into improving tunnel diodes but the basic structure has not been altered. The conventional tunnel diode includes a heavily doped p-type material and a heavily doped n-type material. Such heavy doping is required to permit tunneling in narrow junction widths. One result of the heavily doped material was a large number of dislocations in the crystalline structure resulting in high valley currents and attendant power dissipation. A second feature of highly doped tunnel diodes was a substantial tunneling width (length of path) which resulted in a relatively low tunneling current, limiting their high frequency performance.